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A channel committed to learning about and applying Stoic principles and techniques. "Waste no more time debating what a good man should be, just be one". reddit.com/r/stoicism facebook.com/groups/Stoicism/
"People aren't in awe of your sharp mind? So be it. But you have many other qualities you can't claim to have been deprived of at birth. Display then those qualities in your own power: honesty, dignity, endurance, chastity, contentment, frugality, kindness, freedom, persistence, avoiding gossip, and magnanimity" - MA, Meditations, 5.5
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In your actions, don't procrastinate
In your conversations, don't confuse
In your thoughts, don't wander
In your soul, don't be passive or aggressive
In your life, don't be all about business
"For if a person shifts their caution to their own reasoned choices and the acts of those choices, they will at the same time gain the will to avoid, but if they shift their caution away from their own reasoned choices to things not under their control, seeking to avoid what is controlled by others, they will be agitated, fearful, and unstable" - Epictetus, Discourses, 2.1.12
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We all sorely complain of the shortness of time, and yet have much more than we know what to do with. Our lives are either spent in doing nothing at all, or in doing nothing to the purpose, or in doing nothing that we ought to do. We are always complaining that our days are few, and acting as though there would be no end of them. Seneca
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Full serenity prayer:
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time; enjoying one moment at a time; accepting hardships as the pathway to peace; taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it; trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His Will; that I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with Him forever in the next. Amen.
With regard to whatever objects give you delight, are useful, or are deeply loved, remember to tell yourself of what general nature they are, beginning from the most insignificant things. If, for example, you are fond of a specific ceramic cup, remind yourself that it is only ceramic cups in general of which you are fond. Then, if it breaks, you will not be disturbed. If you kiss your child, or your wife, say that you only kiss things which are human, and thus you will not be disturbed if either of them dies.
- Enchiridion, 3
Key ideas of this discourse:
1. When you repeat a behavior, it leads to a habit. When you don’t repeat a behavior, it does not lead to a habit.
2. We sustain habits by feeding behaviors associated with them. When we keep feeding anger, for example, we become ill-tempered.
3. We can avoid being carried away by negative passions by not doing the behaviors associated with them.
4. Our behaviors are the result of impressions. Don’t be carried away by emotions. When an impression creates a negative emotion, take a few minutes to examine its true nature.
5. Avoid behaviors that feed a negative habit from the beginning. If you keep postponing, you will reach a stage where you will become too weak to fight them and you will start making excuses.
Read further:
https://www.thestoicgym.com/single-post/2017/08/30/CHOOSE-HABITS-TO-FIGHT-IMPRESSIONS-Epictetus-in-Plain-English-III18
Don't confuse your thoughts of pain with pain itself.
Look closely and you will see your mind has a habit of complaining. Like a child throwing a tantrum, it cries out: "I am in pain!" "I am depressed!" "I feel sick!" "This is unbearable!"
Leave these thoughts unchecked and they will overpower you, drowning out your inner reason.
Therefore, in the midst of pain, remember your nature:
You are a philosopher.
This is the fabled arena, and the opponent is worthy.
This is your opportunity to inspire the crowd with courage and composure.
After all, philosophy is useless until used
"We suffer more often in imagination than in reality"
- Seneca
Today I escaped anxiety. Or no, I discarded it, because it was within me, in my own perceptions — not outside.
If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.
(Marcus Aurelius)
Always conduct yourself as though you are at a formal banquet. If the dish has not reached you yet, don’t be impatient. Wait your turn. When it comes around to you, reach out and take a modest amount. If it passes by you, don’t try to pull it back.
If you act the same gentle and restrained way with your spouse, children, wealth, and status, you will be entitled to dine with the gods. If you go a step further and decline even what is given to you, you will not only be in the company of gods, but share their powers as well.
Enchiridion, 15
What any one may say or think of him, or do against him, on this he spends not a thought. He satisifies himself with these two things: With acting justly in what he is present doing; and with loving what is at present appointed to him. He has thrown off all hurry and bustle; and has no other will but this, to go on in the straight way according to the law; and to follow God in a straight way
(Meditations, X.11)
To the man who only has a hammer everything he encounters begins to look like a nail.
* * *
To the stoic who only has virtue everything he encounters begins to look like an opportunity to exercise it.
"It's unfortunate that his has happened. No. It's fortunate that this has happened and I've remained unharmed by it"
- Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 4.49A
"One day, you and everyone you love will die. And beyond a small group of people for an extremely brief period of time, little of what you say or do will even matter. This is the uncomfortable truth of life. And everything you think or do is but an elaborate avoidance of it. We are inconsequential cosmic dust, bumping and milling about on a tiny blue speck. We imagine our own importance. We invent our own purpose--- We are nothing. Enjoy your fucking coffee"
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Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together, but do so with all your heart. -Marcus Aurelius
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We are like actors in a play. The divine will has assigned us our roles in life without consulting us. Some of us will act in a short drama, others in a long one. We might be assigned the part of a poor person, a cripple, a distinguished celebrity or public leader, or an ordinary private citizen. Although we can't control which roles are assigned to us, it must be our business to act our given role as best as we possibly can and to refrain from complaining about it. Wherever you find yourself and in whatever circumstances, give an impeccable performance.
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Epictetus holds that the Stoic ought not to be unfeeling like a statue, since he is indeed by nature affectionate (φιλάλληλος), gentle (΄ήμερος), faithful (πιστός), helpful (συνεργητικός), and loving, and so is and ought to be naturally drawn to fulfil all his social, familial, and civic roles as a healthy, mentally attuned human
Epictetus says that family affection (το φιλόστοργον) and fondness (στερκτικόν) are natural human feelings which are compatible with what is reasonable
Epictetus says not only that tender affection (φιλοστοργία) for our own children is natural, but that once we have children, it is not in our power not to love (στέργειν) them.
It is blind passion that the stoic philosopher is against. You should be concious of your love, and sure it is not aimed merely at seeking pleasure.
It is my privilege to love even those who stumble. This love follows as soon as I reflect that they are like me, and they do wrong through ignorance; and above all they do me no harm, for they have not made my ruling faculty worse than it was before.
—Meditations 7.22
"Every man's life is sufficient. But yours is nearly finished, and still your soul reveres not itself, but seeks your well-being in the souls of others." - Marcus Aurelius
One of the most important and freeing principle of stoicism for me is to learn let go of others perceptions of you, and look into your own self for all the approval and love you seek
"Let no-body have it in his power to say with truth of you, that you are not a man of simplicity, candour and goodness. But let him be mistaken, whoever has such an opinion of you. Now, all this is in your own power. For, what is he who hinders you to be good, and single-hearted? Only do you determine to live no longer if you are not to be such a man. For neither does reason, in that case, require you should."
- Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
On the Shortness of Life (Meditations 5:33)
Soon you’ll be ashes, or bones. A mere name, at most–and even that is just a sound, an echo. The things we want in life are empty, stale, and trivial. Dogs snarling at each other. Quarreling children–laughing and then bursting into tears a moment later. Trust, shame, justice, truth–gone from the earth and found only in heaven.
Why are you still here? Sensory objects are shifting and unstable; our senses dim and easily deceived; the soul itself a decoction of the blood; fame in a world like this is worthless.
–And so?
Wait for it patiently–annihilation or metamorphosis.
–And until that time comes–what?
Honor and revere the gods, treat human beings as they deserve, be tolerant with others and strict with yourself. Remember, nothing belongs to you but your flesh and blood–nothing else is under your control.
If you're 25, this is how many weeks you have left (on average).
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On ambition and success:
"Do you wish to win at Olympia? So do I, by the gods, for it is a fine thing. But consider the first steps to it, and the consequences, and so lay your hand to the work. You must submit to discipline, eat to order, touch no sweets, train under compulsion, at a fixed hour, in heat and cold, drink no cold water, nor wine, except by order; you must hand yourself over completely to your trainer as you would to a physician, and then when the contest comes you must risk getting hacked, and sometimes dislocate your hand, twist your ankle, swallow plenty of sand, sometimes get a flogging, and with all this suffer defeat.
When you have considered all this well, then enter on the athlete’s course, if you still wish it. If you act without thought you will be behaving like children, who one day play at wrestlers, another day at gladiators, now sound the trumpet, and next strut the stage. Like them you will be now an athlete, now a gladiator, then orator, then philosopher, but nothing with all your soul. Like an ape, you imitate every sight you see, and one thing after another takes your fancy. When you undertake a thing you do it casually and halfheartedly, instead of considering it and looking at it all round".
Enchiridion 29
On those mornings you struggle with getting up, keep this thought in mind - I am awakening to the work of a human being. Why then am I annoyed that I am going to do what I'm made for, the very things for which I was put into this world? Or was I made for this, to snuggle under the covers and keep warm? It's so pleasurable. Were you then made for pleasure? In short, to bo coddled or to exert yourself?
(Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 5.1)
